Tell us about your team’s culture, what makes your team different or unique?
At the University of San Diego, Toreros are called to combine their passions, their God-given talents and their innovative or entrepreneurial spirit with their desire to help those who are most vulnerable or their quest to confront humanity’s urgent challenges. Those who are bold enough to live their lives where all those things converge are true Changemakers.
Changemakers take what they’ve learned in the classroom or out in the field and use it to solve a problem or make a difference. They have the confidence to try something different, to stretch outside of their comfort zone. And they aren’t afraid of failing.
The University of San Diego is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States and was the first on the West Coast —to be designated by Ashoka U as a Changemaker Campus. At USD, Changemakers don’t wait until after they graduate to make a positive impact in the world. They do it now.
At USD, classroom learning is connected to social justice and social change. More than 500 courses include a service component. More than 8,000 students participate in service-learning projects annually. And, each year, the faculty, staff and students contribute more than 400,000 public service hours globally.
Our campus is intentionally organized to help students distill their passions and ideas, conduct research, effectively scale programs for the greatest impact, write business plans and turn their concepts into actionable solutions. It starts in the classroom, where social change learning objectives are embedded into the curriculum, effectively extending the classroom beyond the four walls of the university.
The Changemaker designation and philosophy also strongly align with the University of San Diego’s Catholic identity and teachings on social justice. The practice of Changemaking and USD’s Catholic intellectual tradition both reflect a deep conviction to developing ethical, capable and compassionate graduates committed to the common good. Toreros across every field of study and in every corner of the world are conceiving ideas and launching solutions that improve the human condition.